"Butters," I said, "no time for that now. The important thing is that I don't dare touch that toy." I frowned, thinking out loud. "Or take it back to my place, either. The wards keep magic out, but they keep it in, too. It would probably fry it to hang around in there for too long. Even working any heavy energy around it could be dangerous."

"Well, that's stupid," Butters said. "I mean, storing important wizard information on something that getting close to a wizard would destroy."

"It's not stupid if you want to sell it to a wizard and you're worried the buyer might off you instead of dealing in good faith," I said.

Butters looked at the corpse and then back at me. "You think Grevane killed Bony Tony?"

"Yeah," I said. "But Grevane knew that he couldn't get to the information on that jump drive on his own."

Butters swallowed. "Which explains why he needed me."

"Yeah." I chewed on my lip for a second and then said, "Get Bony Tony back in the fridge. We're leaving."

Butters nodded and went back to the examining table. He threw the cloth over the corpse. "Where?"

"Can you read that thing here?"

"No," Butters said. "This computer is too old. It has the wrong ports. We could go to one of the other offices, maybe—"

"No. We need to get out of here—now."

"We could go to my place," Butters suggested.

"No. Grevane will definitely have it under surveillance. Dammit."

"Why dammit?"

"We're short on options, and that means we have to go someplace I didn't want to go."

"Where?" he asked.

"A friend's. Come on."

"Right," Butters said, and promptly walked over to his polka suit. He heaved up a couple of pieces. The cymbals clashed tinnily against one another.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. "We've got to go."

"I'm not leaving it here for God knows what to mess with," Butters said. He grunted and threw a strap awkwardly over his shoulder. The bass drum rumbled.

"Yes, you are," I said. "We are not taking it with us. We don't have time for this."

Butters turned to face me, his expression stricken.

That stupid polka suit filled up most of the back of the SUV It was a pain to move it without making a bunch of noise, but in the end we managed to slip out the back door of the Forensic Institute and make a clean getaway. I watched the road behind us carefully, until I was sure that I wasn't being followed. Then I headed for the campus area, and Billy's apartment.

I pulled into the apartment's parking lot, leaned out, and yelled, "Hey!"